Meet Matt

I'm originally an Oregonian, my parents having met at the U of O. Between that and growing up in Eugene, I still have an affinity for the Ducks—unless they're playing my alma mater, Washington State University. Oh, yeah, and I'm also a fan of the Seahawks who I supported for 38 years until they made me proud. My son has gotten into the spirit and now happily wears Seahawks caps and shirts.

My love of storytelling stems from a Hansen family tradition, perpetuated by my dad trying to entertain his two kids on long weekend drives. When fellow students in my eighth grade creative writing class enthusiastically lobbied the teacher to have me read my stories out loud, I realized I might be onto something. Cursed with a limited attention span, and never having taken the traditional path to anything, by the time I finished college I'd had at least 20 jobs. Little did I realize such serial eclecticism might actually serve me later in a career.

After spending three whirlwind years in Alaska, I was back in Seattle running a radio commercial production company. I placed an ad in the local paper soliciting voice talent, and of the 300 or so tapes I got, far and away the best and funniest was from a guy named Bill Fitzhugh. With that introduction Bill and I became writing partners for more than 20 years. We honed our chops with radio comedy then decided to take a fly at big time show biz in Los Angeles. After a number of short stints for Carsey-Werner Productions, Fox Television, Norman Lear, and others, we found work writing and rewriting screenplays. Among some of our odd jobs was fixing an action script for now disgraced lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

Bill and I eventually took different paths and began writing books. My journey led into the realm of non-fiction. The Shadowkiller was my break with the worlds of collaboration and stuff that isn't made up. I've since been busy with a number of projects, from books to films to television. I will tell you about some of them in other areas of the site.

I live in the mountains of Southern California with my wife, Stephanie Bianca, a television producer and screenwriter, our son Zane, and a furry/hairy menagerie.